Scottie Scheffler’s incredible season and what to expect

When Masters champion Scottie Scheffler won the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in March he became the world’s number one ranked golfer – and he got one up on Tiger Woods in the process.

The 26-year-old’s victory at Austin Country Club was his third PGA Tour win of the season and saw him overtake Jon Rahm and Collin Morikawa at the summit of the Official World Golf Rankings.

Earlier this season the American won the WM Phoenix Open, his maiden Tour win, and then claimed his second victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

There were just 42 days between his first PGA Tour win and claiming the world number one spot – the quickest that has ever been achieved. Tiger Woods is the second quickest to achieve that, at 252 days.

It marked an incredible 18 months for Scheffler, having only gained his PGA Tour card in 2019 before winning 2020’s Rookie of the Year award.

Record earnings

A week after becoming world number one, Scheffler then lived up to his billing at Augusta National and won the Masters by two shots from Rory McIlroy to make it four wins in 2022.

Though he would miss the cut at the PGA Championship, he then finished second at the Charles Schwab Challenge and joint second at the US Open, just one shot back from Matt Fitzpatrick.

He now has a remarkable total of nine top 10s and 14 top 25s in 18 events. Since October he has earned an astounding $13,056,624, enough to make a LIV golfer blush. 

That breaks the PGA Tour season-long money record by over $800,000 held by Jordan Spieth during the 2014-15 season – and there are still 9 tournaments remaining in the schedule including the Open Championship and the FedEx Cup playoff events.

Even if he only plays in a few of those, he can probably expect to bank quite a few more dollars to distance himself further from Spieth’s former mark. He is also currently over 1,200 points ahead of Sam Burns at the top of the FedEx Cup standings.

What’s ahead for Scottie?

Scheffler played the Genesis Scottish Open at The Renaissance Club in North Berwick last week, but unfortunately missed the cut. He has now arrived at St Andrews for the 150th Open Championship. 

Even though he doesn’t have a load of links golf experience, his second place finish at the US Open at The Country Club in Brookline, which played more like a British Open over the weekend, will stand him in good stead. He also finished T-8 at last year’s Open.

Despite his missed cut at the Scottish Open, it would not be a surprise if the laid-back Texan adds a second major to his incredible season at the Home of Golf and cements his place at the top of the world rankings.